The Forgotten Music

If you are a resident of North America (odds are that you are), chances are you look back on dance music as a fad of the 80's and 90's, or perhaps more fondly as a symbol of youthful memories.

The rest of the world looks at this style quite differently however. Japan, Europe, and many other parts of the world are still generating top ten songs with a dance beat, and an electronic treat. From the melodic techno to the chaotic hardcore, dance music (often referred to as electronica) is a forgotten art form in North America. How sad for the few of us that play our old Eiffel 65, U96, and Cascada tracks over and over again just wishing the fad would come back.

Dance music seems to be the one style that you can truly loose yourself in, plunging into a lake of sound that surrounds you and comforts you. Even the most lyrically depressing dance songs carried within them the underlying tone of hope and happiness.

How sad for us. The modern radio station chooses urban and rock over trance and ambient, and the next generation of listeners is told that those other styles are just an inferior expression of the past.

Not so. As I write this, the echo of the dance boom rages on with my subwoofer still kickin' the beat. Dance music may have died in North America, but the throbbing booms of music still resound in my house...

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Today's non-word is Exiplocajim (ex-zip-lock-a-jim), the indescribable force behind societal fads and trends.